Homecoming
by GracelesslyFalling
Summary: An Anna and Tony one shot from Iron Man with characters from my fanfic Relentless/Rehabilitate. you don't have to read those fanfics to read this, but it would give some context of their relationship. (Siblings)


**Homecoming**

Three months. It'd been three months since Obadiah had broken the news to Anna. Three months of silently plowing through her school work so she wouldn't flunk out right before graduation. It was a coping mechanism. One she'd inherited from her father. When the world became too real, she immersed herself in work. The distraction only lasted as long as the project you worked on. And with her last final behind her, Anna had nothing to guard herself from the pinpricks of pain that started stabbing her heart as soon as she walked out of the lecture hall. Pulling her phone from her bag, she dialed one of only three numbers she ever called. She breathed a sigh of relief when there was an answer

"Rhodey hasn't been answering his phone for a week now. I just. You're going to be here next week, right?" Anna heard her voice crack through the phone, as tears welled up in the corner of her eyes. She was afraid that something with the company would keep Pepper away. Anna didn't know if she could actually go through with graduation with no one there. Not when she knew Tony would be screaming at the top of his lungs and making an embarrassing scene were he still alive.

"Of course. I wouldn't miss it for anything," Pepper assured Anna, her lungs constricting at the pain in Anna's voice. Losing Tony hadn't been easy for the company, or Pepper. But that was nothing compared to what it had done to Anna. Tony was all she'd had left. "I was thinking afterwards we could get a bite to eat and maybe catch a Broadway show."

"You don't have to make a big deal out of it. It's just my undergraduate degree." Anna had managed to finish her pre-doctorate classes in two years. She had to be at graduation, and she didn't want to be alone, but it was just a stepping stone on the path to becoming a doctor.

"You're graduating magna cum laude. That's a huge deal. You know Tony would have gone all out for it." Pepper realized too late what she was saying. The shaky inhale of breath and small sniffle on the other line had her internally cursing herself for her big mouth.

The call waiting going off distracted Anna from Pepper's apologies. Not that she needed to apologize for mentioning Tony. Anna needed to get used to talking about him in the past tense. Pulling the phone from her ear, she saw Rhodey's face lit up on her phone.

"Pepper, that's Rhodey on the other line. I should take it," Anna murmured. After promising to forward all information about graduation to Pepper, Anna finally took Rhodey's call.

"Hey Rhodey," Anna answered after taking a calming breath. She didn't need Rhodey knowing she was crying. He'd break any military orders to stay wherever he was stationed to meet up with her.

"Have you been crying, Anna Banana?" She almost dropped the phone when she heard Tony's voice on the other end. It was weak, and labored, but it was Tony's voice.

"Tony," Anna whispered, not wanting to let herself believe even while hope was rising in her chest. "How…you're alive?" Hot tears spilled over Anna's cheeks just like they had at his funeral. Except this time she was smiling.

"You bet your ass I'm alive. I'm not that easy to get rid of," Tony joked. The effect was ruined a little when he started coughing. Before Anna could say anything else, ask anything else, Rhodey had commandeered the phone.

"We're flying home now. How soon can you be in Miami?" Rhodey asked.

"I'll be there when you land," Anna insisted, hanging up and calling Pepper back. She needed to use the Stark private jet. She needed to be there when Tony came home.

…

It was just Pepper, Happy and Anna standing on the asphalt outside the military base waiting for Tony and Rhodey's plane to arrive. Anna had refused every suggestion of eating or changing when she arrived in Miami, forcing Happy to take her and Pepper to the airstrip Tony would be landing. She wouldn't even wait in the car with them when they arrived two hours before the plane was due to land. Instead she stood outside, searching the skies for the first sign of a plane.

With every plane that flew over the air base, Anna felt her heart leap in anticipation. After several false alarms, Anna took to pacing, occasionally snapping the hair tie around her wrist until her left wrist had a red line on one side. When a plane actually landed, taxiing towards her, Anna froze mid stride. The bottom ramp of the plane had barely hit the ground when Anna started walking towards it. As soon as she saw Tony in a trademark suit, his right arm in a sling and walking with Rhodey's help, Anna ignored military protocol and started sprinting towards him. Hopping up onto the ramp, Anna flung her arms around Tony, sending both of them back a foot at the force she collided with him.

"Have you gotten shorter," Tony huffed out as his left arm looped around his baby sister. He couldn't help but notice she was thinner. From the short amount of time he saw her face, before she'd pressed it into his suit, it had seemed paler. Almost as though she was the one being held captive in a cave for three months.

"Don't ruin this moment with your sarcasm. I thought you were dead," Anna murmured, prying her face away from his cotton dress shirt. There was a slight water stain from where her tears bled through the cotton.

"It was just a sabbatical from hell," Tony retorted, before pulling Anna tight into his good side. "I missed you Anna Banana."

Maybe one day he'd tell her how much. That every second he was in that cave searching for a way home, it was Anna that kept him pushing on and wouldn't let him give up. After everything she'd been through the last year, he couldn't leave her alone. He needed to be there for her. They were all each other had and she was what kept him from admitting defeat. One day he'd tell her what happened in the cave. For now, he just wanted to let things fall back to normal between them.

"I think we could both use some burgers and fries," Tony added, as they started their slow amble down the ramp towards the car, Anna now supporting his weight instead of Rhodey.

"And vanilla milk shakes," Anna added, leaning into Tony. He was alive. He was pretty banged up, but he was alive.

* * *

 _A/N: Hello lovelies! I recently watched Iron Man and had to do a one shot of when Tony came home with Anna in it. Let me know what you think and if you're interested in more Iron Man (1, 2, or 3) one shots with Anna!_

 _Rach_

 _xoxo_


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